


The Curse of True Love Never Did Run Smooth

by ananngel



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: I'm a sucker for those, M/M, Merlin is gonna be mean, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, and have lots of bfs 'cause i love merlin/everyone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-12
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2018-07-23 13:49:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7465791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ananngel/pseuds/ananngel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin has been witness of the sorrow a Mark can bring, and of the happiness that can be achieved without one. He himself has known love. Why would he let himself be ruled by a silly marking on his skin then? </p><p>Or the story where Merlin ignores he has a Mark and his so called "Destiny" calling him to Camelot at the same time. He instead stays in Essetir and falls in love, many times. It just bears to reason that Arthur would later find himself in search of his Mark-Match only to find his Mark is a) a sorcerer who hates Camelot and his King; b) averse to the idea of even getting to know him; and worst of all; c) in love with another man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I think many might know it, but the title comes from Shakespeare's " A Midsummer's Night Dream." And yes, the "Curse" bit was intentional.  
> As I said in the tags, I'm a sucker for Soulmark AUs, so I decided do to a Merthur one, set in the canon era, just that many changes have been made according to canon.  
> I hope my english is not that bad, and my storytelling doesn't suck, but if it serves as an excuse, English isn't my native language (It's Spanish btw) I also don't have a Beta Reader, so any mistake is on me. 
> 
> This was also going to be a one shot at first, but I decided to post it fragmented and unite it when it's done, so sorry if the end of every chapter seem weird.

Merlin remembers the first time he started thinking about the marks. He was twelve years old and had just listened to Matthew tell a story to all the kids in town about how he had met his wife. He explained how he knew she was to be the love of his life since the moment he saw her, and how she felt the same. Together they retold the feelings of anxiousness one feels when they finally meet the person they want to spend the rest of their lives with. They fell in love very quickly and their courting was short lived, for she became his wife about three months after they met. A year after, they had their first child and officially became a family. To this day, 20 years later in their marriage, they were the happiest couple in Ealdor. Of course, just like every other one they argued every now and then, and all the town noticed when they did, but it was never anything they wouldn't eventually work out. 

Matthew and his wife were not Soul Marks.

And that's what made young Merlin start to wonder if all the things people said about the Marks was real. 

Everyone always said how mark-matches has been made for each other by the Goddesses of the Old Religion, and that once the match bonded, they were bound to be happier than non-marked couples. But how come this non-marked couple was the happiest in Ealdor, happier even than the other three couples who lived there that were actually mark-matches?

The twelve year old sat in his old cot and thought about his mother and her Mark. She never hid it, like some unmarried marked tended to do. She actually talked a lot about the Mark, how it felt when she was a teenager and started feeling it on her wrist, her excitement when it finally developed completely, and the way she spent eight years comparing wrists with everyone she knew to be marked, until, without even noticing, she started housing her match. 

She had recently told Merlin the story she had shared with his father. She usually had many other stories about princes and princesses, or even other simple villagers with epic love stories like Matthew's, matched and non-matched couples alike, but in one particular night, Merlin requested to hear her story, and while a bit hesitant at first, his mother complied. 

When Hunith was 21 years old, an injured man arrived to Ealdor, more specifically crashed on her doorstep, her dear friend Gaius had sent him with a letter, asking her to take care of the man, at least until he was healthy enough to leave. 

She did as Gauis asked of her, after all he had always helped her when she had needed something, and nursed the man back to health.

Once he awoke he finally explained his situation. His name was Balinor, and he was the last Dragonlord alive. He had barely made it out of Camelot alive and was in need for refuge. 

Hunith offered her house as a safe place, after all, Ealdor, even if it was near the border, was not a part of Camelot, but of Aessetir, and the ban on magic had no effect in those lands. Balinor accepted her help and stayed there, agreeing even to teach her to make some potions that could make him heal faster, though he had decided to hide his magic from others in case someone from Camelot came looking for him. 

It wasn't until she took off his tunic that she finally realized who he really was. Her Match. After both got over their initial surprise at finding each other in such an unlikely situation, they decided to get to know each other better. 

It took Balinor two weeks to heal completely, yet he stayed for six months.

Those six months, Hunith describes as the best in all her life. She told Merlin how his father was a brave, kind and honorable man who had tried to reason with King Uther at the beginning of the purge, and then had to partake in a war against Camelot to protect his kin when he failed. Eventually, he lost and in an attempt to protect the only family he had, he went back to Camelot only to be deceived. The Great Dragon was captured and he had to flee. She also told him many other bits of their story, just like when his father finally confessed he loved Hunith. They were in the forest looking for some wood for the night fire, when he took her hand. They kept walking like that for a bit, forgetting about their initial purpose, and when they reached a clear with a beautiful lake where the night sky could be observed he faced her and told her he loved her. She immediately replied she loved him back and heard Balinor whisper he couldn't believe such happiness could ever be felt in the world. That night they slept together in Hunith's cot to provide each other heat in order to replace the forgotten wood.

However turns out Balinor wasn't so wrong to doubt of their happiness, for not even a month after their sweet moment, he had to flee once more. 

There were rumors in the neighboring village that some Camelot guards were in Essetir looking for a Dragonlord. When they heard it she tried to reassure him that nobody in Ealdor knew about his magic, so there was no way he would be found. She did everything in her power to ease his worries and to offer options in which he didn't have to leave, but when the next dawn broke, he was nowhere to be found. By this point of the story, Hunith's eyes were covered in tears, and more than one had been spilled already.

Merlin was angry when the story finished. He was angry at King Uther, since without his guards looking for his father, he could have had a happy family, and he could have been honest about his magic. But even more, he was angry with the goddesses who had bestowed such fate upon his parents. Without The Mark, his father wouldn't have stayed longer and his mother wouldn't have suffered, granted he wouldn't have been born, but that was not the point. 

The point was that The Mark only made his mother suffer, for she had bonded with his father and up to this day she could still feel him and both their pain caused by the separation. She was doomed to live everyday for the rest of her life loving a man she was not allowed to be with. She would have to live feeling the bitter reminder beating next to her heart.

From then on Merlin started wishing he didn't get a Mark on his next birthday. 

Yet as fate would have it, at thirteen years old, a Mark started to appear on his wrist. He then decided he would never meet his Match, and if he were to meet them, he would refuse to bond with them, for that could only ever mean suffering for both of them. 

He only became more decided when he fell in love with his best friend Will, and had his affections reciprocated.

He and Will had always shared a close relationship, being two of the only young boys in Ealdor, so they became each other's partner in crime, and eventually each other's first love.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I really didn't expect this chapter to come out as it did, but I hope it pleases you guys.  
> Just a friendly reminder that english isn't my native language, and that I have no beta, so all mistakes are on me, feel free to point them out so I can correct it.

"Have you ever wondered why the girls in the village don't really like us?" Asked a seventeen year old Will as he sat next to Merlin. It was a fall evening during the harvest festivities, which meant all around them people were dancing to melodies created with improvised music. 

"Well, I've heard them say they don't think us very handsome." Answered Merlin with a smile. "Why? Has one of them taken your fancy?" Asked he now in a lower voice, with a subtle jealousy in his voice. 

As he finished he turned to see the girls closer to their age who were dancing together. He hadn't really ever thought about it, but while other boys would usually be pursuing one already he had felt no desire to do so. Merlin considered himself to be perfectly happy with just his mum and Will as his family. 

"No, not really. I was just wondering." The older boy fixed his eyes on Merlin's image, the scrawny yer endearing sight he made gave him bravery to speak again. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Aren't we already talking?" Mocked the younger. 

"I meant in private." 

"Alright." Both stood up and walked to Will's hut, which was just a fraction closer than Merlin's. 

Once inside, Will took Merlin's hand and proceeded to talk. 

"I know you have a name written on your wrist and I don't." He started nervously. "But I know you don't really want it. Merlin. I know you better than anyone else, and you know me as well. We've been together since childhood. You were with me after father left, and when the letter arrived. I was there the first time you created a fire figure with your powers, and every time you manage to mess something up with your magic to help you fix it. What I mean to say is that." He took a deep breath. "I love you. And I don't mean that as a brother, but as something else." Once he finished he could only look with anticipation at Merlin's eyes, which had opened in surprise at his best friend's words. 

Merlin's heart started beating faster, and he felt it harder to breathe. All of a sudden all made sense, why he hadn't felt the need to pursue anyone else before. He looked into his friends eyes and realized just why had he felt so uncomfortable anytime the other would mention a girl he was interested in.

"I feel the same." He whispered finally just as one of his characteristically innocent smiles formed on his face. 

Another smile broke on Will's face as he wrapped his arms around Merlin, who proceeded to hug him back. They remained like that for a moment. 

"I knew it already, I was just wanting to make sure." Said Will in a joking manner that granted him a light punch from the other boy. 

\-------------

"Mom said she can't feel him anymore" Said Merlin as he entered Will's hut. 

The other boy could only look at him with pained eyes, for he knew what it felt to lose one's parent, he had already lost both, and going by what people said about marked people and their matches, so had Merlin. "She started crying and screaming after she felt it. She's fallen asleep now though." He finished with a sob.

Will stood up, walked until he stood right in front of Merlin and hugged him. "You know I'm here for you". 

Merlin couldn't answer, all he could do was hold him tight and let his tears run.

"I-" He started to say with a cracking voice, "I will never get a chance to meet him now". He continued to sob. "Mom will never get her happy ending now."

And so the night went by, with Merlin mourning his parents and Will comforting him. It reminded Will of the time the letter came after his father's death, when the same action had taken place in reversed roles.

\-----------------

A month after that, Hunith got ill. 

She had fought so much against it, trying to hide her sorrow from her boy, who could only take her hand in an attempt to comfort her. She managed to hide it well from the villagers, but even they could notice that she had started to wear a bandage where her mark, which had now a faded grey color scheme, had stood. What she used to wear proudly, she now hid, and everyone could make a guess for the reason. 

She kept herself busy in the duration of that month, tended to the vegetable harvest and started helping around some other villagers, which was how she caught the illness. Most said it was horrible for her to have been taken by such a terrible illness, some other said that she only caught it because of her emotional state, a few even murmured her to have been ill ever since Merlin's birth. But only Merlin knew the truth, his mother died of a broken heart.  
In her death bed he could see the regret in her eyes. 

"Forgive me my boy, for not being stronger than this. For not being able to stay with you." She said as she weakly rested her hand upon her son's. Her pale face and sorrowed eyes looking at him apologetically. 

He smiled through the tears and answered. "You are not to blame for this mum." As he took her hand between his. Although he made no mention of it she could feel his rancor for her mark. 

"You have a mark as well, Merlin. And there will come a day when you understand how your father and I felt. You will meet this someone who will be destined to complement you, who will make you understand who you really are, who will love and accept you as yourself. When you meet them you'll see how love can make us stronger. I just hope you allow yourself to receive it." 

The boy could only stare at his mother as her final words finally came. 

"Take care of my boy, Will". She said as she looked to the other boy who had maintained himself in the back of the hut in an attempt to give them privacy and comfort at the same time. Will nodded as looked at her eyes close at last. A smile was formed in her face when she stopped breathing.

\------------

After his mother's passing they moved out of Ealdor to a nearby town.

The place was much bigger and magic was practiced freely, since it was more distant to the border with Camelot. There, Merlin got a job as a magician's apprentice, which gave him the opportunity to acquire both knowledge and experience with magic and spells. The wizard he started to work for had once been a respected one in the magical society before the purge, but now practiced only the simplest of spells and brewed common healing potions to help people. 

"There is something you must know about magic boy." He said with a serious tone after having rejected the pleas a desperate man had made to the old man to bring his recently deceased daughter back to life. "It's all about balance. The Old Religion is anything but forgiving, and to create one life you must take another. The little girl did not deserve to die, that's true, but to bring her back would mean altering the equilibrium, someone would eventually have to die, probably the father. What would be of the little girl then? She would have just probably died again." The wizard took a large book from a high bookshelf and gave him to Merlin. "Educate yourself more on the ways of the Old Religion, you will need to know as much as possible if what the winds whisper about you is true." He then smiled at his apprentice and left to collect some herbs needed for another potion, leaving the boy with many unanswered questions, the one that bugged him the most was _'What did he mean by if what the winds whisper about you is true?'_


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I won't even try to excuse myself, I just hope I can get more time to write this semester, and that I get the inspiration, which is the most needed part.   
> Hope you enjoy, leave a comment if you do.

Will was young when his own father passed, so he understood very clearly how Merlin felt once his unknown father passed, taking with him Hunith. After that they left to a bigger town, to fend for themselves somewhere where Merlin could learn more about himself, because even if he tried to hide it, that magic of his wasn’t a mere possession, but rather a trait, something inherently his, that made him the person he was. 

In their new Village his lover quickly found a person to mentor him, some poor old man that had lost his own family due to The Great Purge. Whereas Will took a job as a city guard. It might not have been the best one he could find, but it was the one that made him the proudest. 

As a kid he had always dreamed of being like his father, a Knight that served as a protector of their people. His father had told him stories of how he helped the townsfolk keep away bandits and how he made sure everyone felt safe in what he considered his very own small realm. The people of Ealdor had more than one ways of showing their gratitude, his noble actions made them care very little for the gossips from away that accused his father of adultery, nobody ever even wondered how a Knight of the King could have no castle of his own and barely have enough money to fend for himself and his son. They all knew better than to ask, for they didn’t care, not when his father’s actions spoke louder than those rumors ever could. That was of course until the King asked for all his Knights to wage a war that couldn’t be won, and Will and the town were left defenseless. 

Now, Will would deny it should Merlin ask, which is exactly the reason he never would, but they are both aware that that sense of taking care of everyone that his father had once taught him is what led him to take a job as a citadel guard. He was no knight, but in a Kingdom that had very little care for his people, a guard that actually helped was appreciated by all. He was always willing to lay his life for the sake of the people just like his father had done, and eventually he did.

To be honest, it wasn’t completely unexpected to have bandits in such a citadel as this, but with the lack action taken by the King, raiders, thieves, bandits and criminals of all sorts were free to roam about the kingdom without trouble. So when this group came around he gather what little men he could and fought them. 

When Merlin arrived to the scene there was nothing he could really do. His beloved was on the ground having received a fatal blow that lost him way to much blood for the magical boy to heal. 

“I can’t lose you too Will.” Merlin sobbed as he held his lovers hand in his and attempted to whisper a healing incantation that did not seem to be effective at all.

“I never meant to leave you so soon Merlin, but it seems that this is what I was meant to do after all. At least I took down the bastard with me.” He smiled faintly and with what little strength he had he touched Merlin’s cheek where the tears were running already. “I love you, thank you for being my…” He struggled to get the words out, until they no longer did. Will’s eyes were now dark and dull, without the life that previously was present.   
_______________________________________________

No matter how much he wanted, he knew there was nothing else he could do for his friend, his love, whom he had lost. 

Merlin was deep into his own thoughts about the family he had lost, when old mentor arrived behind him. 

“I lost everyone as well, at the Purge”. He started as he passed to Merlin a cup of water with herbs that would help him be more calm. “My wife, my daughters, siblings and friends, I was left alone just like you.” He continued. “I was furious back then, just like other surviving sorcerer's I had planned to take revenge against Uther and the Pendragon lineage for what they’d done to us. And try I did, I had it all planned. I was to poison the young Prince, and wait until Uther stated begging for magic to solve his problems. Then I’d stroll in and rub it in his face how magic users could help, but we just wouldn’t after all he did to us. I know it would have meant my death on the spot but I was so angry and so lonely that I couldn’t care less.” He stood up and took out some parchments that seemed to be filled with druid runes. 

“Fortunately, on my way to the city of Camelot, I met with a druid tribe, that told me of a new era that was going to begin with the Prince. They told me stories of another boy, made of magic, who would counsel the prince, once he turned King, and together they’d bring peace and balance to Albion. I realized what it meant for the future and couldn’t perform the plan I had, knowing that if I killed the boy, there would be no chance for a brighter future. I still hoped Uther payed for what he did, but I wouldn’t jeopardize the chance of a world full of magic once more.” He gave the parchments to Merlin to observe, who unaware of the real meaning they had and just how much they related to him, analyzed them with curiosity. 

“So I learned, and I’d like you to pay close attention to this part, that all those resentments we hold in our hearts are only damaging to us, boy. We cannot change what has passed, and the Goddesses only know if we are truly able to change what depares our future. What we can do is control our actions in the present, hope for the best, and when tomorrow becomes today, try to be the best we can once again. For ourselves and for the memories of our loved ones.” He took afterwards a big book he always stored on the top shelve where he kept his most important magic books. “I’m giving this to you, because I believe in a brighter future that you are capable of bringing.”


End file.
